Typical. If you were Welsh you would weep, were it not for the fact that you had been here before and will be again. New Zealand came to Cardiff, played rubbish apart from the five little patches when they felt as if they should concentrate, scored a corresponding number of tries and laughed as the Welsh tried and tried and tried again.

The home side did get within a tantalising point in the 52nd minute at 13-12 with New Zealand due to play the following 10 minutes down to 14. A full Millennium Stadium dared to dream.

You don't want to know what happened next. But we will come to that. Then they were within five with 10 to go, but by now New Zealand were in control, and they scored two late tries just to show how much. Lee Byrne's try at the death gave the scoreline a look that was more reflective of the pressure Wales had exerted and the mistakes they had forced out of the All Blacks, but they could come no closer to stopping yet another grand-slam tour of our isles by these imperious invaders.

They did make more of a game of it, though, than the others, despite not playing very well themselves. At half-time there were only four points in it, neither side able to get away from the other. Both teams were off-colour in the first half, and yet also very good at what they have done best this series.

First of all, though, let us stop, as the stadium did in the ninth minute, to applaud Dan Carter, surely just a World Cup winner's medal away from being the greatest fly-half we have ever seen. That was the moment that he kicked the penalty that moved him ahead of Jonny Wilkinson as the highest points scorer in international rugby.

Best fly-half, shmest shmy-half – by the break he had missed four other kicks. He was not quite on his game and nor were the All Blacks, even if they scored two typical tries of simplicity, beauty and embarrassment for the opposition, even if Carter inevitably had a hand in both. The first had come in the fifth minute off New Zealand's first foray into enemy territory, Isaia Toeava making the defenders blush with a robust break before sending over Hosea Gear. The second had come in the 22nd, when it was Mils Muliaina's turn to make a fool of a defender, taking a switch off Carter to canter in from around halfway. With the missed conversions that made it 13-3, even if it felt worse than that.

Muliaina's had come off a woeful clearance from Mike Phillips, which summed up Wales's kicking game in general. And their line-out was shambolic, too – luckily, New Zealand's was almost as bad.

So it was over to Wales to do their thing of swinging the ball this way and that, with a big feller hitting it up every now and then. It is true that there were occasional drives of more focus and purpose, and James Hook came close to scoring with one of his darts but spilled the ball as he went for the line. Really, though, Wales could have played better, which should come as some encouragement as they headed for the sheds only 13-9 down, Stephen Jones having slotted three of the four penalty shots at goal their territorial dominance had yielded.

Further encouragement followed after the break, with Wales's best spell. At the end of it Daniel Braid saw yellow and Jones kicked Wales to within that agonising point. Then they were awarded a penalty on their own 22 – a chance to take advantage of 14-man New Zealand.

What happened next was classic. Never in the history of the North against New Zealand can a few minutes' play have better summed up the history of the North against New Zealand. Lee Byrne, not for the first time, missed touch horribly, and 14-man New Zealand ran it back. Conrad Smith half-broke, and four pairs of hands later, Gear was in at the corner. Carter converted from the touchline, obviously.

Northern imprecision; New Zealand precision – it has ever been thus and one wonders if it will ever change. By the time Braid returned Carter had added another three – the 14-man visitors had scored 10. They knew they had to concentrate a bit more while down a man, so they did. God, it seems so simple.

Wales, to their credit, did peg them back to within five points with two more penalties but without ever threatening to cross the whitewash. New Zealand's two-try burst in the last 10 minutes put Wales in their place, and the rest of the world in theirs.